PITTSBURGH—Pitt football continued its 2018 training camp with a Wednesday morning practice at the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex on the South Side of Pittsburgh.

Head coach Pat Narduzzi met with reporters prior to the session, announcing the news of that day that junior tight endJim Medure has earned a scholarship. Medure answered questions from the media after practice, along with defensive coordinator Randy Bates, wide receiver Tre Tipton, offensive lineman Mike Herndon and defensive back Dane Jackson.

Videos from each media session are available above, while a transcript of Coach Narduzzi’s media availability can be found below.

Head Coach Pat Narduzzi

Opening statement:

“Good practice yesterday, happy again with the energy. When get into 17 practices of the grind, you get to the point where you can either stay the same or you get better. That’s what we try to do—push through these practices to get better because if you’re staying the same, you’re going to lose. But we did have a great team meeting this morning. We made an announcement at team meeting—some guys were asking if we have scholarships or not.

We put Jimmy Medure on scholarship this morning. It was a pretty energetic meeting; kids were fired up, excited. I’m sure you’ll see some video later on come out about that, but the kids were excited for him. Jimmy’s worked his tail off, whether it was at linebacker, whether it was defensive line. After spring ball, we moved him to tight end. He’s made an impact. The kid took the summer, spent all of his time learning the tight end position. He’s really made an impact out there. He was a guy even coming out of spring ball, we said, ‘that guy can earn a scholarship at defensive end.’ When we moved him, I thought maybe we set him back from earning one. But we had targeted him a while ago. We’ve talked about him in staff meetings for a long time about his impact not only on the field, but the impact that guy makes in the meeting room with his teammates. He walked into the defensive line room and doesn’t know what he’s doing, but he makes an immediate impact on everybody in that room. He did the same thing in the tight end room, which is impactful. So he’s an all-around—off the field, on the field. He wants to be a pediatrician. It’s a great day.”

On any other Pitt players in line for scholarship opportunities:

“We have to look at our numbers and all that. You’re already on to the next one.”

On the impact towards the team of giving out a scholarship to Medure:

“Team morale-wise, I think we were good going into it. You walk out of that meeting even better. I talked about the grind that practices becomes, but when our guys see a guy that’s worked so hard and watch all the sweat that guys put into it on the field, in the classroom, in the weight room, when you see the video and the impact it made on the team, that shows you everything you need to see. So I think the rest of team knows. They could start awarding guys scholarships that deserve it. There’s some guys that are maybe more athletic and more this, more that, but it’s about the whole package. And Jimmy’s [Medure] got the whole package.”

On the progression of the tight end position:

“We’re all pretty good. I like where it is. Obviously at this point, a little bit banged up. But I like where we are.”

On if Dane Jackson is entrenched as a starter at cornerback:

“He is, but there’s a lot of depth out there. Dane is continuing to compete, a little banged up maybe because he’s one of those older guys. Dane’s done a nice job. He’s out there every day working his tail off. There’s a lot of competition out there. But Dane’s going to play a lot for us.”

On Elijah Zeise stepping towards the starting Money position:

“Zeise has, mainly because Saleem’s [Brightwell] been a little bit banged up. There’s still a battle there. We’re going to find out on game day; we’re going to find out who plays better. That’s going to be a battle. Those two guys are both starters. We know Saleem started all year inside, maybe out of position. They both bring something to the table.”

On Jimmy Medure playing tight end:

“You ever see him play basketball? Pull up some of his basketball highlights. Two years ago at my house, we got a basketball court out back, I was like, ‘what the heck?’ This dude’s jumping up, dunking and everybody wants Jimmy on their team. And I’m like ‘really?’ I wouldn’t of picked him, but they’ve seen him. He’s a great athlete. The guy can do anything. There’s reactive players and active players, and he’s a guy that actively can get where he wants to. He knows. He jumps in huddles and when we say, ‘hey, we’re running a seven route,’ he knows what to do. He’s a big athlete, he really is. I don’t know what he’s weighing right now, but he’s an athletic guy. I don’t know if he’s dropped the ball here at camp.”

On Tre Tipton’s recovery:

“Tipton’s been great. Knock on wood. He’s been really good. He stayed healthy, and we’ll keep it that way. Just got to keep managing him. There’s nothing critical we’ve been doing just to keep him there, but it only takes one day to get him banged up.”

On if they’re holding Tre Tipton back at all:

“Not really, no. He’s not been held back. He’s working hard. We don’t manage him any differently. Every day we have GPS’s out there, trying to manage how our guys physically are doing. Who’s worked too much? Do we need to slow back on some other guys? Just so we don’t over work them. I think the GPS’s are a big-time tool.. Austin Addington-Strapp works with Coach [Dave] Andrews and Freddie [Walker], and they really get a good analysis of where we are there.”

On scheduling a game against Duquesne or Robert Morris in the future:

“What do you think? Would you like to see that? I think it would be cool. That’s a good football team. We could go out of state and go play somebody, but I think anytime you can keep it in state… We’ve talked about the other in-state rivalry. I think it would be great for the city of Pittsburgh to go play at Duquesne or Robert Morris. I don’t care who it is. We play Youngstown State, but why not play Duquesne? I have no problem with that. I’ve got a lot of respect for who they are. I know the type of recruiting they do, and we see them on the road. They’ve got a great football team.”

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Reed Kohberger
Retired Coast Guard Officer with a lot of time on his hands and working a hobby that he enjoys and is actually free - writing.... on all different sorts of things but mostly Pitt football. You can see my more public articles and essays at WWW.pittblather.com, reedkohberger.wordpress.com and the new Pitt football blog www.pittpov.com.

Watching the videos throughout camp has shown a lot of maturity. It also looks like guys have been taking advantage of the weight room. All the talk about depth and competition is a good thing, except that you would like to see some guys stepping up to win positions. I do like the confidence that seems to be a theme.

Starting to feel better about the wide receiver position, especially if Tipton is all the way back, but still wondering who will stretch the field and emerge as a bigger body red zone threat. That’s going to be key for a young quarterback who could be on the run quite a bit.

Hindsight is 20/20 and last season was last season!
some reasons to be optomistic about this season:
an upgrade at qb, namely Pickett, the player that needs to stay healthy
the return of Aston
Mack is eligible to play this year
Tipton is healthy
Morrissey has a year of experience
the defense has more experience and depth and is a year older
Paris Ford, football’s swiss army knife and playmaker

I’m getting bad vibes about the WRs. Tipton is in the mix as they say, but the Freshmen are getting all of the press as standouts (perhaps to motivate them). Also, Mack is not being made available and has not stood out this Fall. Maybe an injury? Narduzzi keeps these things from us, and now possibly Sibley is going to require surgery. Do you think PN could have mentioned it? What is the big secret all the time with this guy? No wonder fans don’t trust him.

I pay no attention to the coach speak during camp. Or even in the spring when he was talking up Reeves.
Why does any of this surprise you? He’s not going to change, he thinks he needs to keep Pitt football tighter than Fort Knox. He should never complain about attendance as its a two way street.

Prior to Narduzzi I used to get excited when the first depth chart got released. With Narduzzi, I don’t.

Agree on the WR’s, I’m optimistic about the group as well (despite the unknowns), not just because of the addition of Mack, but because a few of the young WR’s appeared to look very good. From my recollection, I see Lopes & Tipton as good route runners with good hands (Tipton’s experience is limited, but that’s what I noticed from him), and I’m hoping Shocky and/or Mack can be the deep threat. But, we suddenly seem to have some depth at the position, based on the little info. available. We need a good YAC guy.

I think I read somewhere that 95% of all P-5 schools have the same practice regiment as Narduzzi. I do realize that PITT needs more promotional and be media much more friendly than other schools but it’s not like he’s doing anything different than practically every other head coach.

It appears Matthews has dropped off the map. Other than the Freshmen and previously Mack, there just isn’t much good news here. What happened to fFrench? I’m trying to stick with the ike school of thought, and stay positive, but after years of experience with Pitt I do tend to follow the expression that no news is bad news..

VOR, did you listen and watch Tre Tipton’s interview? It reminded me of someone you know. (me) Being somewhat positive is not a job it’s a healthy way of life. Matthews could be lighting the world on fire as far as we know. ?? I know he’s been hurt as well… Keep on Smiling E

Narduzzi said he noticed the trend on Wednesday, when wide receiver Maurice Ffrench took a handoff and accelerated around the end of Pitt’s defense, leaving everyone in his tracks. That kind of burst isn’t usually available for players at the end of a grueling camp.

“Most of the time, practice 17, your legs are shot, anywhere I’ve ever been,” Narduzzi said. “I think we’ve done a great job keeping our guys as fresh as we can with recovery and really just being a maintenance guy as far as not keeping them out here too long.”

Narduzzi also feels that his team is generally in good health. Of Pitt’s expected starters, all but right tackle Alex Bookser have been practicing fully.

====

Three keys to this clip – Appears the players have had a better year of conditioning. Should lead to better finishes to games.

“Ffrench leaving everyone in his tracks” – there is some positive WR news.

Reed, I read that and I’m fairly sure it was somewhere around that number. psu has a very similar approach and WVU allows 30 minutes at the beginning of practice I looked and couldn’t find where I read it. I’ll keep looking.

Peak had an interview with our running backs coach Andre Powell the other day and he was asked about Darren Halls game against Duke and Powell was very honest when he said we know that game was complete outlier he has to be much more consistent in his ball carrying.

Which I thought was interesting because that’s what I’ve been saying for the whole season and you guys were ripping me on it

I see Peak is back to being an expert. Wasn’t there an article the other day when his views were in question? Interesting. Although I have a lot of respect for him myself as well. Funny thing is I have read, listened and watched almost all Narduzzi’s interviews and I don’t see or notice the poor report with the media? He takes jabs at Jerry but it seems playful to me.

I listened to the Peak podcast linked above. Good listen at a time when there’s not a ton of news floating around, but unfortunately the general theme is that’s there a lot of unknowns (especially at WR, the focus of the podcast), which is what we all already knew. The point being: by not being able to watch practices, we just don’t know a whole lot. That’s PN’s prerogative, just saying I’m looking forward to seeing actual live footage in 9 days (and even then, stuff will be held out), because everyone is largely in the dark.

Driving home from work I listened to Stephen A. Smith rip Urban Meyer a new you know what. As I listened, I kept kept thinking about the Medure / Batman video. The juxtaposition between the Pitt feel good video and OSU’s Urban Meyer situation couldn’t be more stark. I would love for Pitt to have OSU’s won / loss record, but not at any price. H2P – Hobie

I’d take it at pretty much price. No one will remember this stuff come October. I see writers like Dennis Dodd ripping Meyer but he’ll be kissing his behind late in the season when tOSU is battling for the playoffs.

No one is talking about the MSU gymnastics doctor or what Dantonio and Izzo’s players were accused of doing to women. It is in the past, we all have moved on and now the media is gearing up for a good season of MSU football and basketball as wrong as that sounds. I’d rather gear up for a good season and deal with some turbulence months beforehand.

N-B#4 – I suppose you’re right that all will be forgotten in due time. But, right now the scandals are on my mind and I’d rather see a student-athlete be greeted by Batman and mobbed by his teammates for gaining a scholarship than to see the head football coach dragged through the mud on ESPN and the school questioned for why it prioritizes wins, profit and power over victims. – Hobie – PS. Don’t forget Dr. Richard Strauss at OSU and his record of abusing students and athletes. Also, Joe knew. The Big Ten East doesn’t look very big to me right now. H2P

Ike, a lot of schools have one or two full access practices a week then close the others.

But it doesn’t really matter what other schools do because at Pitt we need more fans, more butts in the seats and a ton more donations.

All that would be helped by getting people as much info about the team as possible.

In that sense who gives a crap what other schools do?
As I said before if you want to point fingers at Pitt for lack of media coverage all you have to do is look directly at the HC.

and it isn’t just open practices. If you notice he’s clamp down on everything this fall camp. We have not gotten one bit of information about scrimmage stats or how people did in the scrimmages. This is the first year I can remember that ever happening.

He’s built a wall of paranoia around the program because he’s nervous as hell about the upcoming season

Show me proof that opening practices gets more fans … didn’t work for any previous coach. Pitt still only gets 5-6k at spring games regardless. Just because die hards, who already have season tickets, want it does not create a fan base. Winning consistently, for long periods of time does. And losing will drop you back below where you were when you started winning. See Pitt basketball.

I’m on your side with this Reed. I’m not defending him just forwarding something I read. (I agree I need to reference more things with a link or quote) I feel very strongly that Pat could be and more importantly SHOULD be more flexible and still have his secret practices. I think access is really important for PITT right now.

I keep telling you guys and gals, I’m not the big Narduzzi fan you people make me out to be. I just defend someone/anyone when they are being pick and jabbed at because of a dislike of them. I do feel it’s important to keep him for another 2 or 3 seasons until we all know one way or another if he’s the man for the job. and I do think he is although he can be a J O at times.

Didn’t he build a similar wall when he overachieved his first season and posted an 8-4 record with wins over the B1G and ACC champions in his second season?

Seems like it’s something that he does and he likely inherited the trait from the Sparty HC. It’s annoying but it’s pretty commonplace. Whatever he needs to do that he believes will give Pitt the best chance at success is fine with me.

On a question by Peak today Narduzzi responded that he feels much better about the OL from one month ago. Now that could just mean he didn’t feel very good a month ago and now he feels a little bit better. I think he also numbered 6 to 7 guys on the OL he feels good about. If that’s the case it doesn’t leave us too much room if a rash of injuries occur at that position.

Honest to goodness, if PITT wins 8 games this year I will be permanently banned from the POV for what I will post on here. This pissing in my PITT punch bowl has me laughing half the time and putting most of this negative crap in my memory bank the other half. ike

Yup, it’s just not gonna happen, and no amount of bravado will make it so. Seriously, they have them as dogs in 9 games, 9! Favored in 3. Do you see 5 upsets and no stumbles? We will see, that’s why they play the games.

Getting on to more important matters, every time a new recruit gets a pic taken of himself in a Pitt uniform, it’s always the Royal Blue & Yellow uni’s. Not the extremely common, navy blue and vegas gold ones (that several other woebegone 2nd rate programs wear)

So why don’t we just go all in, on the Royal Blue & Yellow. We like them and the players/recruits choose them every time. And they are somewhat unique to Pitt.

Based on what some posters have stated explicitly and reading between the lines of what others have written, it seems like the majority of commenters expect Pitt to win 5 or 6 games, which aligns with the Vegas over under of 5.5.

You may not EXPECT Pitt to win 8 games, but if you think they’re going to win 6, there’s a significant chance they win 8. Also a significant chance they win 4. For teams in the 35 – 70 range, which is where Pitt probably resides, the potential variance is huge because there’s really very little separating them. My current prediction for Pitt is 5 wins, but I don’t think 8 is bananas. They probably have a 10-15% chance of winning 8 games and an equal chance of winning 4 games.

Agree with Emel on the uniforms/color scheme, Take advantage of your most recognizable differentiator, one that obviously connects with recruits. You don’t buy products and services strictly because of the logo or branding, but there’s a reason firms spend so much time and treasure obsessing over these things.

To be clear and again please, read my lips and or fingers. My last projection for PITT was 7 wins. Jus saying if PITT wins eight games I will tear your playhouse down. If they only win 4 or 5 games, let me have it. This barring any serious injuries to key players like KP.

Ike, you can’t say barring serious injury to KP or someone. You take it in and make your pick. Injuries are all part of the equation, unknown and all. So it’s 7, right? No qualifiers allowed. You still have a week or so to come to your senses, lol.

ike, the Tipton interview was impressive, but can he play football? He will have a lifetime of opportunities to improve society, but right now we are concerned with his ability to catch a football. I don’t think he is exactly lighting it up at camp right now, but if he stays healthy, maybe he will provide some help later on. Relying of Freshmen to play WR tells me that the WR portion of the roster is filled with 2 and 3 stars who are being recruited over.

Athlon 130 FBS rankings. Pitt 43, 7 0pp0nents higher. closest GT at 42 next closest WF at 37 then 4 in top 20. Consensus 5/7 season. Lindy’s 130,Pitt 61, 8 opponents higher, closest WF at 48 then Duke at 41 rest are in top 25. Phil Steele only ranks top 60. Pitt does not make the cut but opponents that do number 7. Consensus of all three,=7 losses. which makes a 5/7 season. Add in all the qualifying factors and statements by writers 6/6 looks pretty solid7/5 a shot and 8/5 I hope so but not holding my breath. More than that well as my granddaddy used to say, place a wish in one hand and ugh in the other and see which one is full first. I hope I am wrong in a good way. H2P

JoeK, I’ll stick with 7 wins for the season unconditionally, jus saying if they win more games

VOR, Tipton is a very good athlete and obviously a good person. Again, players aren’t necessarily being recruited over. They are 3* players and when you’re regulated to recruiting the second tier player there will be a growth period that 4 and 5* players are always required to have. Narduzzi has built up a fairly substantial depth chart.

This year and more next year will tell the tail. I think the team is coming together but what in the hell do I know?

You know a helluva lot Iek and I agree with your 7 win prediction.
Emel, that hat was weird as hell…did you notice the one with the Cathedral on it? It says “only 2 left”. Wondering how many they sold…maybe only made 5. Haha. Agree with you on the colors but would love a more mustard shade instead of yellow.
H2P

I am feeling more optimistic as well. I think the senior leadership with young depth is going to gel. What do Athlon and Steele know about Pickett and Wirginis. This is hopefully the year the defense begins to roar and holds on for wins instead of giving them up.

Emel, we were just in the PITT Shop last week-end,,they are carrying a hat with the old Panther head that adorned the helmets as reward stickers during the Marino era..the hats came in the real Mustard or Bright blue but cheezy made and would fit my big head.

Some-one in the know told me to stay tuned changes are being made…hope I live to see the Marino era look..that was PITTS best look IMO…Navy and Vegas smell to much like Stinky Steve…

1 month to the Tarheel tailgate…I am hearing through the grapevine that a PITT legend may be attending !!!

Out DL and LBs could not get persistent effort on our opponents to disrupt timing-if that happened we would have seen more picks…I thought Maddox had some talent..Remembering him covering the Sr. WR from Duke his FR year…he was always with his man but the balls were perfectly delivered..again, no consistent pressure on the Dukie QB.

The best defense is pressure on the QB. Hopefully we get it back this year because good things happen after that. Also hope that regardless of Narduzzies D approach new coordinator helps team this year.

ike, I truly believe that Pitt will be better this year. But it is only because of some positive media coverage. This happens every year, and we must weigh the opinions of the local press with the more national outlets. A 5-7 record is obviously not better. A 6-6 record is slightly better but could be because of weaker competition from the teams we are supposed to beat. i.e. no upsets from the weaklings on the schedule. Trying to be positive has let me down for 30 of the past 35 years.

VOR, there is a different vibe this year. Kenny Pickett without stuttering guaranteed a better record than 5-7. He looked straight into the camera and stated, that ain’t happening again. << I paraphrase. Give me the last example of that kind of talk coming from the PITT starting QB you can remember? You won’t be able to do it. I have never heard such brave, brash and confidence coming from the leader of a football team, well, since you know………. Joe Willy